The Sultanate of Rumistan: An Alternate Anatolia

[marsworms]

A map of western Anatolia, the Aegean, Thrace, and Rhomania around the 1320s (720s) (The area outlined in a darker green is the iqta of Osman and his successors)
Part 9: The Pestilence in the West
​

The western regions of the Sultanate, from the core lands around the capital of Iconium to the newly conquered territories on the Sea of Marmara under the auspices of the general Osman son of Ertuğrul, was the first region of the Sultanate to fall beneath the dark cloud of disease, but the changes which disease brought to it were quite distinct from those in the highlands of the east. There were no nomadic populations to take advantage of the decline of settled farmsteads, and so rather than seeing a decline of rural peasants in favor of nomadic herders, western Anatolia saw a rise in the standing of the very peasants who farmed the land in the first place. Similar changes were seen in lands further west, such as those under Roman control in southwestern Anatolia and Thrace, as well as in the lands of the Franks, where the rapid decline of peasant populations brought with it the rising importance of peasant labor. For western Anatolia, a sort of middle class was forming, comparable to those in the Roman Empire or Hungary, one that would continue to develop over the course of the ensuing centuries and repeated outbreaks of the Pestilence.

This rising middle class of newly important peasants was a threat to the pre-existing middle classes of western Anatolia, the Roman merchants and lesser Roman and Turcoman nobility which had migrated in with Osman’s armies. A letter from a wealthy Roman merchant in Nicaea, with the backing of his Turcoman and Armenian colleagues, to Orhan the son of Osman in 1372 (774) describes just how aghast many of the old elite were at the rising of the Anatolian peasantry:
“Orhan, most majestic scion of the great general, representative of the great Sultan of
Iconium, the families of the merchants of this fine city wish to have your ear. The ofeiletis
[A pejorative term in the Roman language for the children of peasants that migrated into
the cities. Translates literally as “debtor”.] of Nicaea have the audacity to demand the
same sorts of protections as we. Surely, it is those who have the experience and the
pedigree of dealings which deserve such insurances. It is not the ofeiletis who know the
ways and means of the Franks nor of the trade which passes through Marmara, and it is
not the ofeiletis which construct the finest wares of this finest of cities. Enclosed is a list
of all of the merchants and craftsmen of all quarters of Nicaea which implore you, oh
fine and glorious ghazi, to consider our suggestions.”

While the written record shows the shock of the old middle class at this rising urban former peasantry, the archaeological record of cities such as Nicaea, Prusa, Panderma, and Iconium have a sudden infusion of slightly lower quality crafts, more likely than not those produced by the new group of urban craftsmen, the “ofeiletis”. Similar shifts are also seen in those areas of Anatolia still under Roman control, from Smyrna to Polydorion to Makri, albeit without much Turcoman influence on the material goods produced in this time period. Beyond this, those peasants that remained in the countryside saw a great growth in their value as workers, correspondingly with their rapid decline in population.

While the rise of the western Anatolian formerly peasant middle class is a notable development in and of itself, another interesting change is with regards to the religious makeup of the western territories. The Sultan’s stance on Sufi practices typically ranged from frowning upon such beliefs to just not caring too much about them, though the closest that the state ever got to promoting Sufism was with the popularity of Jalal ad-Din Rumi under Kaykhusraw II, Tamar, and Kilij Arslan IV. The ravages of plague caused crises of faith everywhere, and in western Anatolia it was the Sufis who answered the call of need. Many of the newly constructed masjids in the recently conquered cities became havens of Sufi preaching, and oftentimes Sufi shaykhs would dwell in their own lodges in cities, becoming just as much a backbone of local society as the local elite and merchants, priests, imams, and rabbis. Increasingly, however, the region became a hotbed of conflict between different Sufi sects and even Christian mystical groups.

While many different Sufi sects all had presences in the region, the most prominent were both quite young: the Mevlevi Order, founded by followers of Jalal ad-Din Rumi, and the Dimashqi Order, founded by a mystical Arab woman named Aisha ibn Isa ibn Uthman al-Dimashqi in the city of Damascus. Both of these sects focused on harmony between faiths and harmony between people, making them very popular in the increasingly diverse cities of western Anatolia populated by indigenous Romans and Jews, the children of the Turcoman conquerors, and immigrant Armenians from further east. Both used the sorrow and illness of the Pestilence to their advantage, preaching hopeful and mystical messages that galvanized the people in the cities and countryside across the region.

The older of the two, the Mevlevi Order was established by followers of the poet Rumi after his death in 1273 (671), and is famous for its “Whirling Dervish” practices, performing a unique spinning dance as a form of dhikr, or remembrance of God. The Mevlevi Order was also the only Sufi sect to experience any sort of state sanctioning over the whole of Seljuq history, with numerous Sultans over the centuries financing Mevlevi lodges and even helping to build shrines to Mevlevi saints. In most ways other than their unique whirling sama dance, the Mevlevi Order is typical of Sufi groups, though very distinct from the Dimashqi Order, its main competitor across western Anatolia.

Aisha ibn Isa ibn Uthman al-Dimashqi was born in the city of Damascus, to parents fleeing the destruction of Baghdad. Her exact birthdate is unknown, but it is believed to be around the early 1270s (670s). Her parents were notables in the ‘ulema of Baghdad prior to its destruction, active in the philosophical and theological discussions that were prominent in the city, and as part of the wave of refugees fleeing to the west they brought their deep and complex ideas with them, moving the center of Arab culture, philosophy, theology, and science to Dimashq. Growing up in this environment of intellectualism, Aisha grew fascinated with the discussion of falasifiyya that were going on all around her, reading up on the greatest of the Arab scientists, Roman philosophers, and Persian writers. According to the narrative described by leaders of the Dimashqi order, Aisha ibn Isa al-Dimashqi founded her mystical order around the 1320s (720s), amid the chaos and death of the Pestilence in Damascus, forced to leave the city at the efforts of the local governor. From the beginning, the beliefs of the Dimashqi Sufis were seen as excessive forms of falasifiyya, and the resoundly anti-Sufi governor felt that exiling them was truly needed. Fleeing to the east, they took refuge in the Ilkhanate, the Ilkhans far more interested in court intrigue and dealing with the plague to respond, as the group spread further out from those western provinces of Mongol Iran.

The Dimashqi Order combines the mystical core concepts of Sufi theology with Platonic philosophy and even some aspects of Iranian religion that percolated through the Persian writers that Aisha read in her youth. They believe that God is the source of all pure platonic forms, and practice an almost dualistic belief in the purity of the divine (in the form of God, His prophets, and the platonic forms of all existence) as opposed to the uncleanliness of the material world, an almost Gnostic practice that has been the source of much of the disdain held for them in the regions where they are present. However, it is this very anti-materialist dualism that has made it quite popular in the plague-ridden regions of western Anatolia, giving it a strong foothold in the region, stalwart against the efforts of the Mevlevi Order and of the Sultans at Iconium.

 

[marsworms]

A map of the major players of the Pontic-Caspian Steppe after Öz Beg Khan's death (map depicts circa 1345)
Part 10: The Pestilence in the North
​

The whole world over changed irrevocably due to the Pestilence, and thusly our focus should not linger too long on the world of Anatolia. The lands to the north, what was once the Golden Horde of the Mongols, were affected resoundingly by the Pestilence, for theirs was the greatest state of which a sovereign succumbed to the disease. Öz Beg Khan, Khan of the Kipchaks and the Tatars, the Great Lord of the Golden Horde, died from the black Pestilence, leaving no strong-willed heirs, in 1332 (733). In almost an instant, the lands north of the Caucasus, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea were shattered into numerous successor states, made up of the generals of Öz Beg Khan, upstart warlords of the steppes, and the local magnates of the cities which dot the expansive wilderness. The yoke of the Tatars which so angered the Russian principalities was broken, as was the ban on Christian travel through the steppes. The steppelands were completely changed.

To truly get a sense of the chaos which suddenly engulfed the former Golden Horde, we must examine the key players, the most major successors of the Mongol state. In the south, there was the Khanate of Crimea, based out of its capital at Eski Kirim, which spread from the coast of Moldavia to the Sea of Azov. To its east were a number of newly independent Caucasian states, made up of Circassians, Chechens, Ingushetians, Alans, and others, but the largest of these was the confederacy of the Neo-Khazars, just to the north of Azerbaijan and with its ostensible capital at Samandar. The oldest son of Öz Beg Khan, Djanibek Khan, established a rump state out of Sarai, surrounded on all sides by the hostile states of rebellious generals, most notably the Manghit Horde under the command of Babak Temur, a half-Persian half-Mongol warlord. A group of Buddhist Mongols, taking advantage of the collapse of their mostly Muslim overlords, established the Kingdom of the Western Oirats along the Volga. The Uralic peoples which had been living under the Mongol horseshoe established their own independent states as well, from Mordvinia to Perm. The steppes had become a mosaic of warring states, all crippled by the Pestilence and yet still pushing into battle.

The beginning of the Wars of the Successors in the former Golden Horde was defined primarily by the pitched fighting between the Manghit Horde and the remnants of Djanibek’s Horde out of Sarai, Babak Temur focusing on becoming the overlord of the city which was once the seat of Öz Beg’s power. While Djanibek Khan and Babak Temur Khan were battling along the Yaik River, the Western Oirats were attempting to expand to the west, conquering beyond the Volga and into the principalities of the Rus’. The Vladimir-Oirat War lasted for 9 years, ending with Oirat victory in 1345 (745), a Buddhist state established over numerous Russian towns and villages. Whether the Oirats would maintain control over the towns was a different story, though it did not seem that Novgorod, the largest and most influential of the Russian states, was preparing for war. To the west of the Russian principalities, the tribes of the Lithuanians unified under the banner of Vilnius, a series of chaotic wars fought amongst the pagan tribes, as the Teutonic Knights to their north prepared for another series of raids on the newly independent Lithuanians and their traditional targets, the Samogitians. Poland’s Mongol-friendly king of the Piast dynasty was overthrown and killed in 1347 (747), plunging the kingdom of the Poles into civil war between rival noble lines, each vying to become the new kings of Warsaw.

While Thrace, Anatolia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East were hit hard by the Pestilence, the sands of al-Sham were not stained red with the blood of thousands like the earth of eastern Europe were. From the Aral Sea to the river Oder, the clashing of swords and the shouting of soldiers accompanied the Pestilence, throwing the lands formerly under the domination of the Golden Horde into a complete bloody chaos.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry for a bit of a shorter post... I ended up spending most of my time for this post making the map hehe. This sets up a lot of important stuff for the future however... Up next: a look back at the crusades of the 13th century!

 

[MagicalPhantom345]

Enjoying these updates so far

 

[marsworms]

Enjoying these updates so far

Thanks! I was getting a bit worried at the lack of response, but thank you enjoying them!!

 

[MagicalPhantom345]

Thanks! I was getting a bit worried at the lack of response, but thank you enjoying them!!

Yeah sorry I couldn't respond sooner, just got a new job so I needed to focus on adjusting.

 

[marsworms]

Yeah sorry I couldn't respond sooner, just got a new job so I needed to focus on adjusting.

Understandable, I hope that the new job goes well!

 

[MagicalPhantom345]

Understandable, I hope that the new job goes well!

Thanks I appreciate the support

 

[EmperorBuaya]

Say, will there be unification of Russia in the future under Muscovy like in OTL?

What happens to the House of Osman (rulers of the Ottoman Empire in OTL) in this TL?

 

[marsworms]

Say, will there be unification of Russia in the future under Muscovy like in OTL?

What happens to the House of Osman (rulers of the Ottoman Empire in OTL) in this TL?

I don't want to spoil too much of what happens with Russia and the former Golden Horde given that, after the special crusades update, we will be spending a series of posts in the lands north of the Caucasus. However, the House of Osman does exist and is notable in the Sultanate of Rum! Osman himself became an important general who spearheaded an invasion of the Eastern Roman Empire in the early 14th century (Osman's War if you want to look back at the post about it), and his iqta holdings in western Anatolia were handed off to his children after he died. They aren't rulers of their own state by any means, but the House of Osman is an important political influence within the Seljuq Sultanate of Rum.

And gosh, thanks so much for reading and responding, I absolutely love the Star Dynasty timeline!!

 

[marsworms]

Special Update 2: The Five Failed Crusades
​

Over the course of the latter half of the 13th century, five crusades, five failures that followed the chaotic and violent Fourth Crusade that stole the city of the world’s desire from Roman hands in 1204. First of these was the Fifth Crusade, an attempt at retaking Jerusalem from the hands of the Ayyubids in Egypt in 1217, led by the King of Hungary and the Duke of Ostermark, ultimately ending in a failure for the Franks, and al-Quds remaining in the hands of the Kurds. Following this was the Sixth Crusade, yet another attempt to take Jerusalem, which successfully regained the holy city for the Kingdom of Jerusalem for a whole of fifteen years, before it fell back yet again to the hands of the sons of Salahuddin. At the very least, these crusades could say that they made a meaningful attempt at the goal that the Franks had been working toward for centuries. The same could not be said of the three great failures that followed.

The Seventh Crusade was a very small movement, led by King Louis IX of France, which attempted an attack on Egypt in 1248. Al-Malik as-Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub, crowned as Sultan of Egypt and Emir of Damascus only 8 years prior, petitioned the Turcoman Sultan at Iconium for assistance regarding the planned invasion by Louis IX, not entirely knowing the strength of their forces and wary of responding to the first crusade attempt in his reign, but the boy Sultan Kayqubad II declined, at the insistence of his mother to focus instead on defending against raids by the barbarian Mongols. King Louis IX’s forces would have normally been no match for the Mamluks of Sultan al-Malik, but he died in the year 1249, leaving his son Turan Shah to become the Sultan for a very short period. Leading the armies himself, Turan Shah defeated the Frankish crusaders at the city of al-Mansourah, capturing King Louis IX and putting him up for ransom. The ransom of him and his soldiers would be paid by 1254, a huge sum of 800,000 bezants (a term used by Western Europeans to describe Middle Eastern gold coins).

In 1270, another attempt was made by King Louis IX to push into the Dar al-Islam, not yet done with that strong crusading spirit, but this time he attempted a rather unorthodox direction, sailing to capture the city of Tunis. The Frankish ships failed to capture the city from the sea, turning to land on the coast and attack the city from there, but at this point a mutiny and betrayal took place, with Henry III’s son Edward taking the remainder of the ships and turning to port in Sicily, abandoned Louis IX and his plague-ridden soldiers in the deserts of Ifriqiyya. King Louis IX, following another feeble attempt to capture Tunis, fled into the sands with his army, dying of disease around 1271 or 1272. The Frankish Army (Jaysh Faransiun) has since become a staple of the folklore of Tunis and the surrounding countryside, the remnants of accounts of villages mysteriously raided in the night by the stragglers that remained of Louis IX’s army forming into folk tales of a ghostly army, almost like desert ghuls, that haunts the sands outside of Tunis, sometimes able to be seen at night. In reality, however, the soldiers that King Louis IX brought with him eventually perished out in the desert, leaving little trace beyond the rumors of their ghostly existence.

After building his forces in Sicily and southern Italy, Edward went back east, to attempt an invasion of the Holy Land one last time. This is most properly known as the Ninth Crusade, though it is more famously termed the Last Crusade, for the title of the popular historical fiction book that describes a dramatized version of events. It truly was the “last crusade” however: though there were to be more wars termed crusades in the centuries to come, the Ninth Crusade was the last attempt by any Catholic power or noble to take the Holy Land, and it would seem that the “crusading spirit” so popular and prominent during the High Middle Ages, was finally petering out. In 1271, Edward son of Henry sailed out from the city of Syracuse to land in Acre, then capital of the crumbling remnants of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the first step of a three year long campaign that would take him through the Levant, Syria, and Cilicia, and involve a unified effort of Seljuq Sultan Kilij Arslan IV, Armenian King Leo II, and Mamluk-Sultan Rukn ad-Din Baybars to push out the Frankish incursion.

First, Edward landed at the port of Limassol in Cyprus, still under Crusader control, whereupon ships under the orders of the Mamluk-Sultan came to the city and attacked his forces in June of 1271, forcing him to make haste to the city of Acre, holing up in the city’s defensive walls, and taking part in a defense of the city against the forces of Mamluk-Sultan Baybars in November of 1271. Following this, he took his armies and swooped down, capturing the city of Qaqun to the north of Jerusalem, and ceding it to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. For much of the winter of 1271, while the farming villages were relatively unprotected, Edward captured a large swathe of land to the north of Jerusalem, hoping to capture the Holy City in the spring of 1272. But, at the insistence of Mamluk-Sultan Baybars, the forces under the command of Sultan Kilij Arslan IV, strengthened and full of morale at the victory against Kaykaus a decade or so prior, came down through the Levant to attack Edward from the north.

Caught by surprise, Edward’s forces were routed and forced to flee back to Acre, whereupon the city was put under siege by the joint forces of Kilij Arslan IV and Baybars. Frantically searching for a way to respond to the siege, Edward sent a secret envoy out of the city’s port during the night, traveling to the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, ultimately hoping to reach the Ilkhanate and gain the support of Mongol warlords and nobility. This was a great success, with the Mongols hoping to capture the lands of al-Sham that were blocked from them earlier in the 13th century, but on the return trip the envoys were captured by King Leo II of Armenian Cilicia, executed, and their heads sent to Acre, to be seen by both Baybars and Edward. But it was too late: Mongol forces under the command of Samagar swooped into northern Syria during the summer of 1272, forcing Baybars to turn around and respond to the Tatar invasion. The small contingent sent by Leo II as well as the army of Kilij Arslan IV were all that remained around the city, and Edward thought that he could take them.

In June of 1272, the Crusader army emerged from the gates of Acre, charging at the joint Armenian-Turcoman forces, hitting them hard. Through skillful use of supply lines through Cypriot ports and the bow-wielding garrison of Acre itself, Edward was able to scrape out a meager victory, and his forces pushed northward, hoping to incapacitate Leo II’s forces by capturing Sis, the capital of Armenian Cilicia. Leaving a swathe of destruction in their wake, Edward’s armies, supplemented by the crusader knights of Acre and the rest of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, captured small towns but ignored major cities, hoping to outrun the Armenian-Muslim forces and reach Sis before winter. But by August of 1272, Baybars had defeated the Mongol armies and forced a ceasefire, turning his armies around to pin Edward and his armies, just outside of the city of Antioch. The Battle of Antioch would be a resounding victory for Baybars, Kilij Arslan IV, and Leo II, routing Edward’s forces and scattering them throughout Cilicia and al-Sham. Edward attempted to regroup in the spring of 1273, but was defeated again at Kilis, whereupon he fled to the west, making a stop back in Cyprus before returning to England, only to become King of England a few years later.

 

[MagicalPhantom345]

The Frankish ships failed to capture the city from the sea, turning to land on the coast and attack the city from there, but at this point a mutiny and betrayal took place, with Henry III’s son Edward taking the remainder of the ships and turning to port in Sicily, abandoned Louis IX and his plague-ridden soldiers in the deserts of Ifriqiyya.

Sounds in character for Edward I.

After building his forces in Sicily and southern Italy, Edward went back east, to attempt an invasion of the Holy Land one last time. This is most properly known as the Ninth Crusade, though it is more famously termed the Last Crusade, for the title of the popular historical fiction book that describes a dramatized version of events. It truly was the “last crusade” however: though there were to be more wars termed crusades in the centuries to come, the Ninth Crusade was the last attempt by any Catholic power or noble to take the Holy Land, and it would seem that the “crusading spirit” so popular and prominent during the High Middle Ages, was finally petering out. In 1271, Edward son of Henry sailed out from the city of Syracuse to land in Acre, then capital of the crumbling remnants of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the first step of a three year long campaign that would take him through the Levant, Syria, and Cilicia, and involve a unified effort of Seljuq Sultan Kilij Arslan IV, Armenian King Leo II, and Mamluk-Sultan Rukn ad-Din Baybars to push out the Frankish incursion.

First, Edward landed at the port of Limassol in Cyprus, still under Crusader control, whereupon ships under the orders of the Mamluk-Sultan came to the city and attacked his forces in June of 1271, forcing him to make haste to the city of Acre, holing up in the city’s defensive walls, and taking part in a defense of the city against the forces of Mamluk-Sultan Baybars in November of 1271. Following this, he took his armies and swooped down, capturing the city of Qaqun to the north of Jerusalem, and ceding it to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. For much of the winter of 1271, while the farming villages were relatively unprotected, Edward captured a large swathe of land to the north of Jerusalem, hoping to capture the Holy City in the spring of 1272. But, at the insistence of Mamluk-Sultan Baybars, the forces under the command of Sultan Kilij Arslan IV, strengthened and full of morale at the victory against Kaykaus a decade or so prior, came down through the Levant to attack Edward from the north.

Caught by surprise, Edward’s forces were routed and forced to flee back to Acre, whereupon the city was put under siege by the joint forces of Kilij Arslan IV and Baybars. Frantically searching for a way to respond to the siege, Edward sent a secret envoy out of the city’s port during the night, traveling to the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, ultimately hoping to reach the Ilkhanate and gain the support of Mongol warlords and nobility. This was a great success, with the Mongols hoping to capture the lands of al-Sham that were blocked from them earlier in the 13th century, but on the return trip the envoys were captured by King Leo II of Armenian Cilicia, executed, and their heads sent to Acre, to be seen by both Baybars and Edward. But it was too late: Mongol forces under the command of Samagar swooped into northern Syria during the summer of 1272, forcing Baybars to turn around and respond to the Tatar invasion. The small contingent sent by Leo II as well as the army of Kilij Arslan IV were all that remained around the city, and Edward thought that he could take them.

In June of 1272, the Crusader army emerged from the gates of Acre, charging at the joint Armenian-Turcoman forces, hitting them hard. Through skillful use of supply lines through Cypriot ports and the bow-wielding garrison of Acre itself, Edward was able to scrape out a meager victory, and his forces pushed northward, hoping to incapacitate Leo II’s forces by capturing Sis, the capital of Armenian Cilicia. Leaving a swathe of destruction in their wake, Edward’s armies, supplemented by the crusader knights of Acre and the rest of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, captured small towns but ignored major cities, hoping to outrun the Armenian-Muslim forces and reach Sis before winter. But by August of 1272, Baybars had defeated the Mongol armies and forced a ceasefire, turning his armies around to pin Edward and his armies, just outside of the city of Antioch. The Battle of Antioch would be a resounding victory for Baybars, Kilij Arslan IV, and Leo II, routing Edward’s forces and scattering them throughout Cilicia and al-Sham. Edward attempted to regroup in the spring of 1273, but was defeated again at Kilis, whereupon he fled to the west, making a stop back in Cyprus before returning to England, only to become King of England a few years later.

Would it be safe to assume that that this different campaign will change Edward and his reign in England?

 

[Al-numbers]

Apologies not commenting earlier! It seems I haven't watched this thread despite it's interesting premise. My bad.
There's a lot of info to process here, so forgive me for being too much.

Plague
Well, there goes this world's version of the Black Death. Given the propensity of disease to follow established trade routes, the entire eastern Mediterranean was probably going through hell, especially at the major cities. How are things holding up at the rump Byzantine Empire and Constantinople? The city of world's desire would be a perfect place for the bacteria to linger around in rats and animals, so the potential for repeat city-plagues would be high. The only saving grace is that the empire isn't at war during the whole thing, otherwise the capital would turn out to become @Planet of Hat's "Cursed Constantinople".

The aftermath of the pandemic is also interesting. Economically, the rise of the new Rumanistan middle class is certainly going to put a mark on the empire's domestic consumption of food and luxury goods, but I also wonder if they would also become trend-setters in their own right. In a way, will the future evolution of Ruman culture be influenced by the tastes and directions of the middle class? Or would culture still be heavily influenced by the sultan and nobles?

The Migrations

As for the Kurdish migrations, I wonder if there shall be any leaders arising from them now that eastern Anatolia has become their new home. It's doubtful, considering the heterogeneity of them all, but the mingling of Kurds, Turks, Greeks, and Armenians does create a possible melting pot from which an unconventional leader could arise.

Though, the rise of the Yazidis is a surprise! Considering their somewhat reclusive nature, the fact that they're now settling as far north as Erzurum means that a) either the plague w has eliminated a lot of scummy neighbors that prevented them from expanding, b) their numbers have grown to the point they could reasonably travel and successfully defend themselves against enemies, or c) they're considered part of the Kurdish people and thus able to hide and grow in anonymity with the whole subgroup. Perhaps it's all of the above. In any case, can't wait to see how they'll affect Rumanistan and Anatolia!

Russian Steppe

Holy hell, what a mess! Though please forgive me for skipping over all the groups because I am still gawking at THAT Buddhist Oirat on the Volga! I know the faith is on the wane as it is, but looks like it still has enough adherents to pack a punch! I'm guessing that with Novgorod still being powerful, Moscow's prominence has been curbed or eliminated as it is? It'll be interesting to see if the Christian Slavs would rally around Novgorod or some other principality or leader.

Besides that, I wonder what happened to the Volga Bulgars. Are they the small, cyan blue state to the northeast of the Kazan Khanate? Or were they swallowed up be their larger neighbors long ago? I find myself actually rooting for them to survive in timelines, simply because a Muslim Bulgar state in Russia is as wild as steppe history could get in these parts! Plus, they open up a lot of possibilities for the future...

Crusades

Aren't my thing, but I am curious as to how the Sixth Crusade managed to regain and hold Jerusalem for fifteen years. I feel a story could be spun from that, though as the author, you have the final say.

 

[marsworms]

Gosh, thanks so much for all the feedback and responses! I'll respond to them to the best of my ability, though I do hope I can be forgiven for hiding some stuff that will become more important down the line hehe.

Would it be safe to assume that that this different campaign will change Edward and his reign in England?

It definitely would, though seeing as this timeline is far more focused on the Middle East (and, not gonna lie, I'm not that familar with Edward and England during this time period), I won't be going into much detail with it. Honestly, some feedback as to how this campaign shapes his reign and later English history would be very much appreciated!!

Apologies not commenting earlier! It seems I haven't watched this thread despite it's interesting premise. My bad.
There's a lot of info to process here, so forgive me for being too much.

Hehe, no need to apologize! I'm just so happy that you're so enthusiastic for this timeline, it really gives me a lot of encouragement!

Plague
Well, there goes this world's version of the Black Death. Given the propensity of disease to follow established trade routes, the entire eastern Mediterranean was probably going through hell, especially at the major cities. How are things holding up at the rump Byzantine Empire and Constantinople? The city of world's desire would be a perfect place for the bacteria to linger around in rats and animals, so the potential for repeat city-plagues would be high. The only saving grace is that the empire isn't at war during the whole thing, otherwise the capital would turn out to become @Planet of Hat's "Cursed Constantinople".

The aftermath of the pandemic is also interesting. Economically, the rise of the new Rumanistan middle class is certainly going to put a mark on the empire's domestic consumption of food and luxury goods, but I also wonder if they would also become trend-setters in their own right. In a way, will the future evolution of Ruman culture be influenced by the tastes and directions of the middle class? Or would culture still be heavily influenced by the sultan and nobles?

The rising western Anatolian middle class is really unique for the Eastern Mediterranean, really the only places with comparable shifts would be in Hungary and Poland (the latter of which was harder hit by the plague in this timeline, and with unique changes to the Jewish population due to its status as a Mongol vassal up until the collapse of the Golden Horde). They will definitely shape the culture of the Seljuq Sultanate considerably, though not in a universal fashion. Much of their cultural influence will be a bit contained to areas with such ofeiletas, mainly in the Aegean and Levant. And, with regards to Constantinople, the city is a true vector of disease, and will remain so for decades, even centuries to come.

The Migrations

As for the Kurdish migrations, I wonder if there shall be any leaders arising from them now that eastern Anatolia has become their new home. It's doubtful, considering the heterogeneity of them all, but the mingling of Kurds, Turks, Greeks, and Armenians does create a possible melting pot from which an unconventional leader could arise.

Though, the rise of the Yazidis is a surprise! Considering their somewhat reclusive nature, the fact that they're now settling as far north as Erzurum means that a) either the plague w has eliminated a lot of scummy neighbors that prevented them from expanding, b) their numbers have grown to the point they could reasonably travel and successfully defend themselves against enemies, or c) they're considered part of the Kurdish people and thus able to hide and grow in anonymity with the whole subgroup. Perhaps it's all of the above. In any case, can't wait to see how they'll affect Rumanistan and Anatolia!

You're pretty much right there about the expansion of the Yazidis! Numerous different factors contributed to their spread, but in all of the places that they expanded into they aren't prominent nor dominant in any way - more a notable minority, and one that often gets scapegoated as the plagues die down and states expand.

Russian Steppe

Holy hell, what a mess! Though please forgive me for skipping over all the groups because I am still gawking at THAT Buddhist Oirat on the Volga! I know the faith is on the wane as it is, but looks like it still has enough adherents to pack a punch! I'm guessing that with Novgorod still being powerful, Moscow's prominence has been curbed or eliminated as it is? It'll be interesting to see if the Christian Slavs would rally around Novgorod or some other principality or leader.

Besides that, I wonder what happened to the Volga Bulgars. Are they the small, cyan blue state to the northeast of the Kazan Khanate? Or were they swallowed up be their larger neighbors long ago? I find myself actually rooting for them to survive in timelines, simply because a Muslim Bulgar state in Russia is as wild as steppe history could get in these parts! Plus, they open up a lot of possibilities for the future...

Moscow effectively never rises to prominence ITTL. Rather, the Metropolitanate (for it hasn't become a Patriarch) remains in the city of Vladimir after the decision by Metropolitan Maximus to move it there in 1299. Moscow and much of the principality of Vladimir is also under constant threat from the Western Oirat Kingdom, and there are periods where the town comes under Buddhist control, though usually not for very long. Novgorod definitely does become the symbolic leader of the Rus' states, and will become more active in the wars of the former Golden Horde over the next few updates, which will focus on the steppes for a while. Also, sorry to say it, but that cyan state isn't the Volga Bulgars, but rather a Uralic state, made up of Mari and Mordvins. This isn't to say that the muslims of the Volga and of the steppe in general won't be important in the future though...

Crusades

Aren't my thing, but I am curious as to how the Sixth Crusade managed to regain and hold Jerusalem for fifteen years. I feel a story could be spun from that, though as the author, you have the final say.

In fact, that happened IOTL! The sixth crusade happened before the POD for this timeline (1243/640), I was only providing it for a bit of context.

 

[marsworms]

An artistic depiction of the Battle of Soroca
Part 11: Blood on the Steppe​

Following the death of Öz Beg Khan in 1332 (733), his expansive empire that held sway from the River Oder to the Aral Sea crumbled into more than a dozen different warring factions, rival hordes and upstart khanates, ethnic groups glad to throw off the Tatar yoke, and warlords and generals eager to take advantage of the weakness of the state. For the remainder of the 14th century, the lands of the former Golden Horde are turned into a churning bloody mess, constant conflict and warfare condemning thousands to death under horse’s hooves and mongol spears.

Babak Temur Khan, the half-Persian half-Mongol general who rose to prominence leading raids into the Ilkhanate and the states of the Rus’ for Öz Beg Khan, led a large group of Mongol tribes and rebellious warlords into forming the Manghit Horde, so named for the group that would come to dominate its politics later in the century, the greatest state of the former Golden Horde. Babak Temur’s horde quickly captured the lands north and east of the Caspian and even pushed up the Volga river and toward the capital of Sarai, and it is said that the Volga delta turned red with the blood of Djanibek’s men and horses as this slow and steady Manghit push moved ever closer. Meanwhile, from the perspective of Djanibek Khan, his steadily shrinking state was always on the defensive, hemmed in on all sides by the Manghit, Kipchak, and Kazan Khanates that quickly sprung up out of his former empire. By 1346 (745), Djanibek Khan controlled only the city of Sarai itself, but he would be saved by the push northward of the state commonly called the Neo-Khazar Confederacy, centered on Dagestan.

There has been much debate about the nature of the Neo-Khazars that rose to prominence in the aftermath of the collapse of the Golden Horde: their relation to the old Jewish Khagans of the early middle ages, if they are related to the old Khaganate whether any Jewish religious influences remained, or even if the name was a misnomer, misapplied by those who primarily wrote about the wars in the North (primarily Persians and Turcomen, with some infusion by Italian merchants). The first use of the term Khazar for the state that arose out of the Golden Horde is found in a text written in Armenian dating back to the year 1363 (764), though this work is still being translated, and the more well-examined work is one written in Persian that dates to 1381 (783) and was found in the city of Tabriz. This text seems to make a connection back to the Jewish Khazars, recounting a story about the circumcision of the new Khan that was crowned in 1334 (734), though there are few other accounts that indicate this connection. A symbol described by some to be the Star of David has been found on shields in the region that date back to this period, but this has been disputed, attributed as a commonly found Middle Eastern symbol that could just as much indicate that the soldiers fighting were Muslims. The general consensus is that, though Jewish individuals were probably present in the government and armies of this new Khazar state, the vast majority of those fighting under the Khan’s banner and under the Khan himself were either Muslims or continued following a shamanic Turkic religion.

While the true nature of the Neo-Khazar Confederacy is up for debate, what isn’t up for debate is the push northwards of the Khazar Khan’s forces, toppling the little-attested Kurgan Khanate (so called for the large number of artifacts of this short-lived state on hills and mounds in the southern steppe) and invading the Manghit Horde, crossing the Volga with a force number upwards of 45,000 to 60,000 Turkic horsemen and Caucasian warriors. Distracting Babak Temur Khan’s armies, the Perso-Mongol turned from the siege at Sarai to confront the Khazars, meeting them in battle first at the mouth of the Volga (where he lost) and then at the Yaik river, where a resounding Manghit victory forced the Khazars to flee back to Dagestan, though Babak Temur did not pursue. Using this window of opportunity, Djanibek Khan defeats Khan Komek of the Kipchaks, ending the siege of Sarai and pushing both up and down the Volga, but it is this splitting of his forces that ultimately spells his downfall.

An envoy from Khan Babak Temur of the Manghist reached Khan Komek of the Kipchaks in early 1348 (749), requesting a sort of makeshift alliance to bring down Djanibek Khan and destroy the Golden Horde once and for all. Khan Komek agrees, sending his force to decimate that of Djanibek in the northern Volga, while Babak Temur follows up with a destruction on the southern Volga, pushing up to pin the city of Sarai before any preparations can be made for a siege. After a considerably shorter siege, Sarai falls to the joint efforts of the Manghits and the Kipchaks, with Djanibek Khan decapitated and his head paraded around on a pike for all to see. The Golden Horde was no more.

Further to the west, the Khanate of the Kipchaks had to deal with another horde of the steppes, and one that was growing increasingly prosperous from its advantageous position: Crimea. The Crimean Horde inherited by far the most fertile lands of the former Golden Horde, and it was this fertility and the large entrenched Turkish population which gave the Crimean Horde its strength. While the Manghit Horde, with all of its great strength, was made up of loose Turkic and Mongol bands and the Manghits that had traveled so far from their eastern homeland, the Crimean Horde truly embraced the many Turkic tribes of the fertile steppes and fields, giving it an immense force that it used to push in all directions. The great city of Kiev, traditionally at the heart of Rus’ politics and religion (at least up until the moving of the Metropolitanate to the city of Vladimir in 1299 (698)), regularly came under raids from the Crimean Khans, immense amounts of gold and silver stolen from its churches and monasteries by the Turks of Crimea.

The Crimean Horde was founded by a lesser branch of the ruling dynasty of the Golden Horde, descended ultimately from Genghis Khan through his son Jochi. Börgu Khan, first Crimean Khan, pushed both east and west, consolidating control in the Pontic steppe by 1345 and invading the Khanate of the Kipchaks, possibly in an attempt to reach the jewel of Sarai and capture it for himself (though he was unable to do so, with the Manghit Horde and Kipchak Khanate capturing the city in 1349 (750)). Khan Komek of the Kipchaks personally faced off against Börgu Khan in battle in the year 1350 (752), though ultimately the face off proved to affect little in the wars on the steppe. From then onward, the porous border between the Crimean Horde and the Kipchak Khanate fluctuated repeatedly, pushed east or west by the steady cavalry advances of the two states.

To the west of the Crimean Horde, a petty state had pulled itself from beneath the Tatar horseshoe, reaching out to the lands to its west for protection against the Khanates that vied to suppress it. When Moldavia achieved full independence from the Golden Horde shortly after the death of Öz Beg Khan, envoys were sent to the courts of the Anjou King Charles of Hungary and Voivode Basarab of Wallachia, as a local notable was raised to the title of Voivode, hoping to establish diplomatic ties and, ultimately, marriage ties with one of its more westerly neighbors. It was at this time that Khan Börgu of Crimea invaded the fledgling Moldavian state, quickly pouring over the Dnieper and capturing the strip of marshy coastline along the Black Sea. Turning his focus toward the east, he ordered his forces to raid into Wallachia and Bulgaria, giving Moldavia a short period of respite.

While both envoys were received with much decorum and kindness in both Hungary and Wallachia, it was King Charles I of Hungary that expressed considerably more interest in the offer of marriage ties, giving his sister’s hand in marriage to Voivode Ioan of Moldavia along with a promise to come to the defense of what became, in effect, a representative of Hungarian interests in the east. This promise proved useful for Voivode Ioan, for Khan Börgu began a new push into Moldavia in 1354 (754), with the Hussars of King Charles I clashing with the Turkish cavalry in the fields outside Soroca (often used as a bit of propaganda by Pan-Carpathianists in the modern day). However, though there was a valiant defense on the part of Voivode Ioan and King Charles, the whole of Moldavia, with only some holdouts in the valleys of the carpathians, was under Crimean overlordship. Voivode Ioan and his court fled to Hungary, under the protection of King Charles I Anjou. Moldavia would become a battleground over the next few decades, with the fortunes on occasion favoring the Crimeans and on occasion favoring the Moldavians. The Crimean-Moldavian Wars ended in 1363 (764), with Moldavia a loyal vassal of Hungary. The Crimean Khans would have much more to worry about than an unruly Moldavia.

 

[MagicalPhantom345]

I really enjoyed this update as I have little to no knowledge of the Golden Khanate and it's key players.

 

[Al-numbers]

Carpathian Europe is in flux, and I can see some future historian crying out: "The Horde is dead. Long live the Horde!"

Also, sorry to say it, but that cyan state isn't the Volga Bulgars, but rather a Uralic state, made up of Mari and Mordvins. This isn't to say that the muslims of the Volga and of the steppe in general won't be important in the future though...

 

[marsworms]

I'm really sorry for not posting an update in like two weeks... I won't be able to post another one until the beginning of next week, my apologies. But, as a little hint, here's the subjects of the next few updates: the Western Oirat Kingdom and Buddhism on the Volga, Poland, and the fates of Vladimir and Novgorod the Great... I hope you all have a great weekend!

 

[marsworms]

Part 12: Buddhism on the Volga​

The Oirats, the westernmost tribe of the Mongols so named for the forests that they oft found themselves residing in (“oi” for forest and “ard” for people in the Tatar tongue), were one of the Mongol tribes that took the most advantage of the newfound interconnectedness of the Empire that spanned the Oder River to the Pacific Ocean, the chief families among them acting as mercenaries for the great Tatar Khanates born out of the split of the Empire, taking part in the Golden Horde raids on the northern territories of the Ilkhanate. With the death of Öz Beg Khan and the subsequent shattering of the Golden Horde, the Oirat tribe (also sometimes called the Torghut) attempted to establish a state around the Aral sea, but this attempt was very quickly put down by the armies of the rebellious general Babak Temur. Fleeing to the west, the armies of Ayuka the Terrible, the soon-to-be first Western Oirat King, gained numbers from primarily sky-worshiping (i.e. Tengriist) bands of Mongols as well as some Christian populations, taking advantage of the great numbers of soldiers and cavalrymen that were forced out of the primarily Muslim-led and majority Muslim armies of Babak Temur Khan, Djanibek Khan, and the Crimean Khans, pushing northwards, past the bloody battles between the Manghit Horde and Djanibek’s Horde and toward the fertile banks of the frigid Volga, establishing a foothold in the region by 1339 (740).

While the early movements of the Oirats under King Ayuka the Terrible are relatively well understood, something that is quite a bit more vague is the nature of the Buddhism that he introduced to the Volga region for quite possibly the first time. Far earlier, the migratory Torghut mercenaries are assumed to have been exposed to Buddhism as they traveled west from Mongolia and through the Tarim Basin and western Tibet, many of their prominent leadership converting to the Tibetan Buddhist faith during this period. It is assumed that the majority of the early Oirats in the borderlands between the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate were not Buddhists originally, but steadily conversion to the Tibetan Vajrayana form of the Buddhist faith increased among the mercenary companies, primarily as a means to distinguish themselves from other Central Asian mercenary groups and to ensure that they would not be held back by community ties in the region: not only were the Oirats distinct from the local Turks and Iranians by language, but also by religion. There was no fear of a Khan of the Golden Horde that the Oirats in his employ would be unwilling to sack a city out of support for the Sufi lodges and masjids of that city. This gradual conversion over the course of the 13th (7th) century was further strengthened by the earlier conversion to Islam of the Ilkhanate: simply put, more Oirats were in the employ of the ostensibly unconverted Golden Horde at the time.

But what is the nature of what has been commonly referred to as Volga Buddhism? Ultimately, it is a subdivision of the Vajrayana branch of Buddhism, with its closest antecedent in the form of Tibetan Buddhism, but due to the nature of the group that primarily spread it (the Oirats) and the history of its presence along the Volga river, it has numerous influences from shamanic Mongol sky-worship (worship of the god Tengri) as well as Islamic and Christian aesthetic and ritual influences. One of the most obvious influences of the proximity of Volga Buddhism to Eastern Orthodox Christianity is the presence of certain Christian saints in Buddhist iconography, chief among them Saint George. There are numerous wooden and metal depictions of Saint George, reinterpreted as an arhat, slaying a representation of ignorance in the form of a vile creature, some of them with a Shakyamuni Buddha taking the place of the Angel Gabriel in the background. A large wooden painting of such a scene can be found in the Munkhagiin Khargis Temple in Nizhny Novgorod, still venerated to this day by pilgrims to the city. By far more controversial than the depictions of Saint George are what are commonly called “Buddhist Jesus” sculptures, produced between the 1380s (780s) and the 1480s (880s) and quickly falling into obscurity afterward.

Now that a quick synopsis of Volga Buddhism has been described, the political actions of Ayuka the Terrible dominate the discussion of the early years of the Western Oirat Kingdom. Quickly consolidating power in the upper Volga, Ayuka immediately went to war with the principality of Vladimir-Suzdal, the leading state of the Kievan principalities at the time, desiring conquest and expansion. Grand Duke Dmitry II of Vladimir, also known as Dmitry the Fat, though unpopular for his lack of direct involvement with his troops, instead choosing to remain in his palace in the city of Vladimir, was a skilled tactician, and initially successfully thwarted Ayuka’s attempts at outright conquest. But by 1344 (744), Dmitry II would befall the same fate as his hated overlord Öz Beg Khan, succumbing to the Pestilence that very year. The prince of Kiev was crowned as the new Grand Duke of Vladimir, but owing to the distance between the two cities and the Crimean raids that constantly threatened Kiev, Vladimir-Suzdal was left completely unprotected. His cavalry pouring over the Volga and into the fields and towns of Vladimir, Ayuka the Terrible is known to have decapitated 500 of the Russian garrison-men, plus a thousand Orthodox priests if the Russian records are to be entirely trusted. With long-bearded boyars fleeing to the west, Ayuka’s armies came upon the city of Vladimir itself in 1346 (747), putting it under siege. In the Annals of Vladimir, a historical text began sometime around the year 1600 (1000), it is written that the “Tatar Demon Ayuga” had Buddhist monks brought to the city walls from further east to loudly chant, seemingly an attempt to drown out the prayers and religious services of the Christian Russians within the city walls. Surely there was little of this deeply religious nature to the conflict between the Oirats and Vladimir.

Ayuka’s forces succeeded in capturing the city by the end of 1346 (747), tearing down the statues of Russian royalty within and ransacking the churches for their golden relics and silver treasures. The city of Vladimir would be re-captured by the forces of the Novgorod Republic only 10 years later, but ultimately the Western Oirats would recapture the city and commemorate a Buddhist temple there. Feeling safe in the defeat of the principality of Vladimir, Ayuka the Terrible turned his eyes east, quickly overrunning a short lived and obscure state on the site of the former Volga Bulgars, constructing and commemorating a Buddhist temple there as well. By the 1360s (760s), the Western Oirat Kingdom had expanded to cover a large area of the northern Volga, from Vladimir almost to the Ural mountains, constantly engaging in skirmishes and raids on the Muslim powers to their south, as they constantly changed and shifted​

 

[Al-numbers]

A large wooden painting of such a scene can be found in the Munkhagiin Khargis Temple in Nizhny Novgorod, still venerated to this day by pilgrims to the city.

Oh wow. There goes Moscow.

Ayuka the Terrible turned his eyes east, quickly overrunning a short lived and obscure state on the site of the former Volga Bulgars

NOOOOOOOOOOOO.

EDIT: A Buddhist state on the Volga is an interesting change. Given Kiev's problems and Vladimir's crushing, I'm guessing Novgorod is the leader of the Russian principalities?

 

[LunazimHawk]

Man I was really rooting for the Volga Bulgars.
I got a feeling that more Turks will begin to settle in the now depopulated region around the Volga, as I doubt most Slavs would wish to be ruled by a tyrant. I got shades of Helugu from Ayuka, but a bit more restraint.